Being English and having lived in the US for 5 years I agree that culturally the differences in humor are enormous. One being that British humor is often more esoteric and oddly vulgar (and accepted for it) than American humor. Sure you have David Cross, Patton Oswalt and guys like that, but we have Ross Noble, Eddie Izzard, Frankie Boyle and a whole slew of others who really wouldn't work in the US because the style is just completey different. Basically we use more slang in our language, are more self-deprecating, are comfortable taking the piss out of one another (not medically - it's a figure of speech) and this is reflected in the workplace which certainly is more liberal and less pc than the US.

And for the record in Britain there are tons of network political satire/comedy shows and have been for decades. John Oliver has been on all of them by the way at some point or another. Have I Got News For You, Mock The Week and tons of other "panel shows" publically rip the piss out of politicans and policies almost every night. Have I Got News For You in particular has been a platform for political satirists to lambast modern events on network tv at prime time. There is simply much more acceptance for this sort of thing on TV and the radio in the UK. Partly because the office of the President is deemed to be some sort of sacred throne here that must have respect, whereas in the UK no one really bats an eyelid when the PM is called a twat on tv. And Chris Morris pretty much invented the fake news show in the early 90s too.

But hey, have a gander.

Mock the Weekhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqB03UxmtyU

HIGNFYhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2i42XZGqhg

And the finest satire of 24 hour news in history - The Day Today War bit-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvyX-CwHpAQ

By far, the best are to be found in “The Foster Harrington Book of Humorous Legal Anectodotes” (Springwood Books 1988), a veritable treasure trove of side-spliters.

Here’s but a sample:

Johann Ferdinand Beer came to England as a refugee between the wars. He became an English solicitor, and an erudite and fearless one, but to the end of his days spoke English with a pronounced – and memorable – German accent. He spoke so by choice: soon after his arrival in England, he said, he had a consultation with an Accent Expert. “I can give you,” said the Expert, “an English accent for use in Canada, or a Canadian accent for use in England. But an English accent for use in England? That is out of the question.”

Nobody in the UK has watched Benny Hill in 20 years. It's a mystery to British people why it's on American telelvision at all. And for that matter Keeping Up Appearances hasn't been on British tv in a decade, and then it wasn't particularly popular.

The Office and All in the Family were both copies of already successful British shows. Ricky Gervais' version of the former may illustrate that network TV is never as good as HBO and Americans prefer their own version of a show to a better English one.

The relative merits of the UK & US "Office" are debatable. I'd never say the US version is better, since the original is so great, but it's not clear that it's substantially inferior-- beyond the first season, it's become its own, uniquely American animal. A very funny one. (Also a different narrative form, with many long seasons, open-ended, as opposed to the elegance & narrative closure of the UK one-- just 2 short seasons of 6 episodes each.) However, the "Office" is definitely the exception-- most of the other imports I can think of have been miserable failures.

Having spent many years abroad with no access to American comedy, I've definitely come to love some Brit comedy--Graham Norton, that other guy who can't pronounce rhiotic "r"'s, an insane show called "The Worst Week of My Life", "My Family", "Coupling". Most of these couldn't be broadcast on American network TV. Some of their other comedies are too irritating and completely unfunny. Absolutely--something gets lost in translation. I loved the Ricky Gervais version of The Office, but haven't been able to sit through a single episode of the American version. The great thing about Gervais's Office was the completely un-pc nature of it and all the subtle British bits that you can only "get" if you've been around a lot of Brits. Just my two cents. I miss those shows now that I'm back in States.

Gavin mentioned "for the record in Britain there are tons of network political satire/comedy shows and have been for decades"

The only US purely political satire/comedy show I can remember was "That Was The Week That Was", hosted by David Frost. Like many shows then & since, it sprang from the UK version, starting shortly after the Kennedy assassination, with Frost being the only holdover from the UK (per TV guide, which like Reader's Digest and Life was in every middle class home then).

I was 11 years old, an avid Mad reader, and was all over this show like white on rice. My parents worked in (NC) state government and had been journalists so politics was proper conversation in our house.

I can't think of another purely political satire TV show in the US afterwards until the Daily Show - which is not terribly unlike TW3. The Smothers Brothers Hour only touched on politics but was killed anyway.

As someone who watches a lot of British television, one thing to be very aware of is that most the shows that are successful in the US are their very best. There is a whole lot of truly crappy British television, quite a bit gets canceled fast.

We just got through watching the entire series of Spaced. Granted, "entire series" is six hours (shorter than one Peter Jackson movie), but we were laughing pretty hard the whole time, even though we got maybe half the references. Maybe 2/3rds.

The basic humor is more cinematic, though.

As has been pointed out, the American version of a Brit show can be successful, it just has to become its own beast. "American Idol" for example.

"Three's Company" was based on a BBC show, IIRC, "Robin's Nest", nothing like that show, really.

HBO's "Not Necessarily The News" was remade from "Not The Nine O'Clock News". I liked the American version quite a bit, and it ran for years.

"Whose Line Is It Anyway?" was great on both continents. The English version was more literate. They actually had a segment called "Authors" where comedians told a story in the style of an author (which Clive assigned them, they didn't even get to pick!): Can you imagine? But the American show was very funny, and featured most of the same comedians.

I've heard the Brits have tried taking American shows and remaking them for British TV; I can't recall which ones and have no idea if they were successful.

So, no, I haven't had enough British humor (we won't even go into the movies, like the recent Death at a Funeral and In Bruges).